Publications

Estimates of the impacts of the 2019–20 fires on populations of native animal species

Date: 12, Aug, 2021
Author(s):   Legge, S., Woinarski, J. C. Z., Garnett, S. T., Geyle, H, Lintermans, M., Nimmo, D. G., Rumpff, L., Scheele, B. C., Southwell, D. G., Ward, M., Whiterod, N. S., Ahyong, S.T., Blackmore, C.J., Bower, D.S., Brizuela-Torres, D., Burbidge, A. H., Burns, P.A., Butler, G., Catullo, R., Dickman, C. R., Doyle, K., Ehmke, G., Ensbey, M., Ferris, J., Fisher, D., Gallagher, R.,Gillespie, G.R., Greenlees, M. J., Hayward-Brown, B., Hohnen, R., Hoskin, C.J., Hunter, D., Jolly, C., Kennard, M., et al.
Related Projects: Population responses to fires of varying severity for priority vertebrate and spiny crayfish species, and the extent to which management actions support recovery

Thousands of species of plants and animals, and many dozens of ecological communities had distributions that were substantially fire-impacted by the 2019-20 fire season. This study aims to provide estimates of population loss and likely extent and timing of recovery for the Australian vertebrate taxa and spiny crayfish taxa that were most heavily impacted by the fires. This information can be used to identify those taxa for which management is most needed to prevent extinction and aid recovery, and for which conservation status assessments are most critical.